Russian propaganda spreads fake video about negative attitude towards Ukrainian children in Polish schools

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and accounts on X are sharing a video allegedly released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It is stated in the video that Polish children do not want to study together with Ukrainian schoolchildren due to the alleged "low academic performance and bad behavior" of Ukrainians. Therefore, according to propagandists, Polish parents are even ready to pay bribes to the principals of local schools to keep their children from studying in mixed classes.

This is a fake. The video has nothing to do with the BBC. After examining the company's website and its social media accounts, we found out that the "video" spread by Russian propaganda had not been released on the BBC's official resources.

It is worth noting that recently, all BBC YouTube Shorts include information about when they were released.

However, the publication date is missing in the fake video spread by propagandists. Russian propaganda created it using photos and videos found in the public domain. Some of them do not even concern Ukraine. For example, the frame with which the video begins appeared on the internet back in 2021, that is, before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It can be found on foreign websites.

In general, the video is accompanied by a selection of shots with children and allegedly photos of Polish schools, which can be found on the internet.

Last week, Russian propaganda also distributed a fake BBC video that concerned the "massive use of Nazi symbols" by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Russia's Kursk region. What is interesting is the fact that both fakes have the same audio track.

Such Russian narratives are aimed at sowing discord between Ukrainians and Poles and weakening relations between the two countries. In addition, through such forgeries, Russian propaganda tries to make people in the West have a negative attitude towards Ukrainian citizens and think that the standard of living of Europeans is falling because of Ukrainian refugees.

Earlier, Ukrinform refuted the fake about Ukraine allegedly "establishing ties" with terrorists in Syria.

Dmytro Badrak